


Artificial Intelligence

by gayspacefics



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Thirteenth Doctor - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-22 20:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17066747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayspacefics/pseuds/gayspacefics
Summary: The doctor receives a distress call from River, who should be saved in the library but instead seems to be alive again. She follows it to a planet that doesn't exist to meet old friends and enemies, and find the mastermind behind it all.





	1. Distress Call

The doctor sat back, looking up from her book. It was nice to take a day off once in a while, read a book, and make some hot chocolate. She leaned her head back on the soft white chair. A new gift from the TARDIS and a nice one at that. She'd made Yaz, Graham, and Ryan to back to their real lives for a bit. Spending all your time in the TARDIS wasn't good for them anyway, and plus, they needed to take a break from each other once in a while. She knew they couldn't last forever either, but something inside her just couldn't stop trying.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by a sudden telephone ring. The sound of an old fashioned phone that her box wasn't supposed to make.

“Hello?”

“Hello sw--Oh! You sound different.”

_No_. It was impossible. The doctor would recognize that voice anywhere.

“ _River_? How...”

“I know.”

River's words were quick and breathless.

“How am I alive? I can't be. That's why I called you, doctor. I just woke up again. In a real body!”

The doctor's eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head. Her brain wasn't moving fast enough.

“But we saw each other for the last time. My last time, and yours. Our diaries are full.”

“I know.”

“How are you even calling me?”

“Glad to know that I still know the TARDIS better than you, doctor. I'm sending you my coordinates. Come and get me!”

The doctor clenched her fist. She wanted to believe it so badly. Time  _could_ be rewritten and their diaries weren't really the end. There would still be more times together. That she had really heard River's voice on the other side of the phone. It was too good to be true. Things like this didn't just happened. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and took a deep breath. 

She was prepared to face whatever was on the other side of that distress call, she told herself as she pushed the lever.  

 


	2. Yowzah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River and the doctor meet again, and get ready to solve their next big mystery.

The doctor fought hard to keep the TARDIS on course. As she ran around, frantically trying to push all the right buttons and levers, she wished she hadn't given Graham, Ryan, and Yaz a day off. That was what you got for trying to be nice to people. And they could have met River too! No. She stopped herself. It couldn't be true. It just wasn't.

Finally, the TARDIS gave in with a crash that sent the doctor to the floor.

“Ow.” She rubbed her head where it had hit the metal grating. “Did you have to?”

“Hello, sweetie.” As always, River was one step ahead of her, already opening the door of the TARDIS.

The doctor stood up quickly. She tried to appear unbothered, but she knew she must have that same stupid, awestruck look on her face. It was always that way with River. No matter how many times the doctor saw her, no matter how many times she watched River’s easy smile and her confident steps, it was like looking straight at a shooting star every time.

“Well you’ve done quite well for yourself, darling.” River looked her up and down. “Much better than the last time.”

The doctor smiled and stepped closer. She didn’t want to say anything witty this time. She held out her hand, and closed her eyes, feeling River’s warm, strong hand around hers. She looked up into River’s green eyes, and when their lips met, everything went quiet. All the memories, all the worries, the constant planning and solutions and thinking was lost, if only for a moment.

“Yowzah,” the doctor said quietly, a smile spreading across her face as they pulled away. “Still my doctor,” said River with a grin.

“Please.” The doctor shook her head at her own foolishness. She looked back up at River. “Please tell me you’ve found some sort of loophole.That you’ve solved what I never managed to.”

“Wish I could tell you. Let’s find out, shall we? I've got some intel.”

“Already?”

“What do you think I was doing, just sitting around? This planet is the headquarters of something big, some large operation that no one will talk about. I found the building where it all is. Shall we try and break in?”

“Yeah, give it a go, ” the doctor said, smiling as she made for the doors. She held out her hand. “C"mon love.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments on the first chapter!! :) :) It's starting a little slow, I know, (really had to get that reunion scene) but we'll get some more action in the next chapter. Lmk what you guys think!


	3. I Missed You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doctor go to investigate the stories of messengers and goddesses, and some strange carvings under a church. And, to her surprise, the doctor finds that someone has left a Gallifreyan message for her.

The doctor stepped outside. She shivered a little in the crisp cold air and wrapped her scarf around her neck. She looked around, scanning for information. 

 

They were on earth or some human colony by the looks of it. Oxygen in the atmosphere, but not a city like she’d expected. She looked out into a wide field, dotted with white, tin-roofed houses. They were high in the mountains, and the air was thinner than usual.  

 

“So, um, what are we breaking into exactly?”

 

River smiled and pointed to their left. “The church.” 

 

The doctor followed River’s finger, her eyes resting on an imposing church complex made out of brown stone blocks. It had a simple, sturdy, but also elegant design, with a cross-shaped floor plan and a conical roof over the dome.

 

“Fourteenth century?” the doctor guessed. 

 

River laughed. “Thirteenth. Close.” 

 

The doctor stopped for a second and looked back at River. “Why do we have to break into a church?” 

 

“Well, not into the church exactly. When I woke up here, I went to the nearest house to try and figure out what was going on. They insisted on sitting me down to dinner, and they called me a messenger. When I asked if there had been any other messengers, they sent me to meet the new deacon at their church. He told me that he had come here to study carvings in the caves under the church, the original pagan religious site.”

 

“So we’re breaking into the caves?”

 

“We can get into the caves. We just have to break into whatever’s past them. The energy readings are all over the place, but I couldn’t seem to find a portal or anything.”

 

“So my archaeologist does need me after all.” The doctor grinned.    
  


“Oh shut up. You’ve got a couple billion years headstart on me.” 

 

The door of the church was intricately carved, with a cross covered in intertwined geometric lines like ribbons wrapping around it. The doctor ran her finger along its ridges thoughtfully. River smiled and knocked firmly on it three times. 

 

The door opened and they were met by a thin young man with deep-set eyes, a beard, and long black robes. 

 

“Doctor Song,” he said with a nod. “Lovely to see you again. Is this your friend?”

 

“Hello, I’m the doctor.” The doctor shook his hand. 

 

River smiled mischievously. “You two, Deacon Samvel. She’s my wife, actually.”

 

The doctor held in her amusement as she watched the young priest’s face blanche and his eyes widen. He regained his composure quickly with a tight smile. 

 

“Are you an archaeologist too?” he asked. 

 

The doctor thought for a second. “Sort of. I’m a traveler...and a lot of other things, really. But I’m pretty sure I can help you decipher those carvings under the church.” 

 

“All right. I’m an archaeologist too. I came here to finish my doctorate by studying this church. Fascinating thing, really. It was built in the thirteenth century after the king won a great battle here. He, and everyone else who was with him there, swore that he was helped by a miracle. Some say that it was the power of god himself, and local lore is that the war goddess Anahit herself joined him in battle and smote his enemies. Some say they have seen her since.” 

 

River looked at the doctor with a smile and raised her eyebrows. 

 

“Ooh,” said the doctor. “Cave carvings and a mysterious war goddess. This is exciting already!”   
  


“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Deacon Samvel. “It’s extremely difficult to decipher anything down there.” 

 

They stopped at another door. This one wasn’t as intricate as the last, but it had a cross carved in the center and was smattered with crude names scratched into the wood and sharpie marker graffiti. Suddenly, River stopped, her eyes wide. 

 

“Doctor, look,” she almost whispered. 

 

“What?”

 

River pointed to the corner of the door. Hidden in the dark of the church, revealed only by the flashlight on River’s sonic screwdriver, was a strange design that nobody else would have noticed. 

 

The doctor’s eyes widened. “It’s in gallifreyan.” 

 

“In what?” Deacon Samvel asked. 

 

“Shut up,” said River, waving her hand at him. She looked at the doctor. “What does it say?” 

 

The doctor took a deep breath. “It says ‘Hello, Doctor. I missed you.’”


	4. The Goddess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River and the Doctor investigate the cave paintings of a village with a strange story and prepare to face an old friend/foe.

 

“Who do you think sent it?” River looked at the message on the wall, and then back at the Doctor.

 

The doctor shook her head. “I’m the last of the time lords. But if you’re alive again, then...it could be anyone.” 

 

Samvel looked from one woman to the other. They were strange, strange enough to fit into all the bizarre history of this town. His heart beat a little faster as he thought about it. The church had largely ignored this town, afraid of what the explanation for its story would be, and at what cost it would come. But Samvel had insisted. It was one of the few mysteries left in the church, and he wasn’t going to leave it alone just because he was scared of some stories. But he had been here a month and had found nothing yet. He needed  _ something  _ to show for his work. 

 

“Excuse me,” he said. “But there’s something down here I think you’ll want to see.”

 

He pulled out a large silver key, and River noted an almost imperceptible discharge of sparks as the key fit into the lock. They started down a long stone tunnel that went deeper and deeper into the earth, the end eaten up in the darkness.

 

“Has this way to the caves always been here?” the doctor asked. 

 

Samvel nodded. “The church was built on the site of the old pagan temple. And the people of the village insisted that the way to the caves be preserved because they believed that it led to the home of the goddess Anahit. They say that she still visits them today.” 

 

River  frowned. She had heard of this goddess, of course, but never of this story. And when she had looked it up before in her archives, she found its existence, but nothing notable about it. It was as if the story was new, but the people here knew it to be ancient. 

 

The tunnel ended suddenly, in a deep cave. Samvel turned his flashlight to face the wall, illuminating a set of surprisingly lifelike carvings. 

 

“These carvings tell a story that many in this village still believe. This story is the reason that the church has left this village to its own devices for so long. Their belief in this story is unshakable, and they say they have evidence to back it up.”

 

“But somebody from the church must have come to investigate it before,” said River.

 

“Hundreds of years ago,” Samvel replied, “When they first built this monastery to reconsecrate the sacred site of the caves and make it ours. But a strange thing happened. Some of the priests disappeared. And the ones who came back were mad, insisting that she had been taken by ‘the Goddess.’”

 

Someone who calls herself ‘the Goddess' and leaves messages in Gallifreyan--the Doctor had a pretty good idea of who she could be looking for. It shouldn't be possible either, but after River she was ready to believe anything. She shone the light from her sonic on the drawings. 

 

Samvel pointed to the first one. “They say that the Goddess appeared in ancient times to protect the people of this village, her chosen village. They say she chose this village because it had the strongest warriors. One of the other gods had put her in prison, but she had escaped and made her way across the heavens to earth.”

 

River ran her finger along the figure’s outline. It was a stylized woman, impossible to recognize. She scanned the carvings with her sonic. 1000 BC. It just didn’t make any sense. 

 

He moved right. “This is the ceremony. Every year the Goddess choses a person. For a year she trained that person in private, and at the summer solstice she would take the chosen one down into these caves with her to Heaven.”

 

_ Heaven.  _ The Doctor had heard that one before.

 

Samvel moved to the third and final carving. “This, they say, is the door to her heaven. No one, except the chosen few, they say, has ever seen it open.”

 

The doctor moved closer to the wall. The carving was a large medallion, a sun symbol crisscrossed by weaving and curving lines in an intricate pattern. A lock.

 

“What do you think, Doctor?” River asked. “Any ideas as to what's behind there?” 

 

The Doctor hesitated. She didn't know if they had ever met, and she wasn't sure she wanted to...

 

“Let's see, shall we?” she pointed her sonic at the door and braced for impact.

 

One...two...three... _ BAM!  _ The Doctor felt herself falling as River’s strong arms tackled her. Her head hit the floor and her mind whirred as she stared over River’s shoulder at the giant piece of the stone wall that coming towards them. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's a short start, but get ready for a lot more action. May also see some team tardis in here soon. My first time back on here in a loooooong time, so hope you like it! :)


End file.
